Kaija Freborg

Office

Advising Area

• Post-Licensure BSN Program

Biography

Dr. Freborg began her journey at SSU in 2022 and serves as the Chair of the AntiRacism, Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Nursing Committee. Previously, she received her DNP in Transcultural Nursing Leadership in 2011 and has 10 years of teaching exclusively in health equity nursing education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Additionally, she has over 15 years of nursing experience working in the NICU and Pediatric units at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. She values community and public health and served as a Covid-19 vaccine nurse with Hennepin County during the pandemic.

Dr. Freborg has trained in the Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation (TRHT) process and is a Racial Healing Circle Facilitator with the American Holistic Nursing Association (AHNA). She was a Fellow for American Association of Colleges of Nursing's (AACN) Diversity Leadership Institute and has served on AACN’s DEI Leadership Steering Committee as secretary. Her scholarly interests include integrating health equity in nursing through health and wellness coaching, innovative curriculum design, and program development. 

When she’s not engaged in her professional life, she enjoys trail running, teaching dance, and doing her very best to keep her plants alive: Bianca (an orchid plant) and Jake (the snake plant). 

Education

DNP in Transcultural Nursing Leadership, Augsburg University, 2011 
MAN in Transcultural Nursing in the Community, Augsburg University, 2008
BSN, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, 2001

Degrees

Academic Interests

health equity, structural competency, racial literacy, nursing advocacy, integrative wellness nurse coaching, and transcultural nursing

Research

Evaluation of an Equity-Minded Nurse BSN Education Curriculum 

Access In Nursing: A Multi-Site Study in Prevalence of Disability and Accommodation in Traditional Bachelor’s Degree Nursing Programs in the U.S. 

Systematic Literature Review to Evaluate Shifts in AJEDI Related Content in Nursing Journals

Selected Publications & Presentations

Publications

Valderama- Wallace, C., Torres, R., Dawkins, D., Ballin, R., Freborg, K., Walker, K., & DeCoux Hampton, M. (2025). Struggling to Shape the Future of Nursing: Paths of Resistance. Journal of Nursing Philosophy, 26 (3), https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.70031

Melino, K., Bell, B., & Freborg, K. (2024). Deconstructing Professionalism as Code for White (Power): Authenticity as Resistance in Nursing. Journal of Nursing Philosophy, 26 (1), https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.70002

Freborg, K., & Clark-Chalmers, L. (2024). Seeing the Field: Applying Watson's Unitary Caring Science to Discern Racism. International Journal of Human Caring, 28(4), 228-238. http://dx.doi.org/10.20467/IJHC-2023-0022

Freborg, K. (2024) Where is the Humanity for Nurses?: A Love Letter to My Fellow Nurse. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 50(3), 322-323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2024.02.003 

Freborg, K., & O’Brien, A.M. (2024, April) Developing a Culture of Equity: How an AJEDI Nursing Committee at Sonoma State University is Creating Change. Diversity Digest Newsletter. American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Freborg, K. (2024). Using Wise Feedback as an Inclusive Teaching Approach. Journal of Nursing Education, 63(1), 59. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20230712-13

Kennedy, A., Bourque Bearskin, R. L., & Freborg, K. (2021). Commitment to Positive Change: Structural Anti-racism Audit of Nursing Education Programs. Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 3(1), 4–6. https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.89 

Enestvedt, R.C., Clark, K.M., Freborg, K., Miller, J.P., Leuning, C.J., Schuhmacher, D.K., McHale, K.M., Baumgartner, K.A., & Loushin, S.L. (2018). Caring in the Margins: A Scholarship of Accompaniment for Advanced Transcultural Nursing Practice. Advances in Nursing Science, 41(3), 230-242. https://doi.org/10.1097/ans.0000000000000201

Professional Presentations

Clark-Chalmers, L., & Freborg, K., At the Crossroads of Power and Vulnerability: Choosing Cultural Humility to Interrupt Bias, Keynote presented at Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialist Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, August 2025.

Clark-Chalmer, L., & Freborg, K. Positionality-informed Consciousness: Cultivating Civility and Engagement in Nursing, Podium Session presented at American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s 2025 Access, Connection, Engagement Symposium, Indianapolis, Indiana, June 2025.

Freborg, K., & Clark-Chalmer, L. Can You See It? Using Caring Science to See and Respond to Racism in the Field, Podium session presented at International Association of Human Caring Conference, Boca Raton, Florida, June 2024. 

Clark-Chalmer, L., & Freborg, K. Building Competencies in Structural Determinants of Health: Nurturing Caring Capacity, Podium session presented at American Holistic Nursing Association Conference, Rochester, Minnesota, June 2024. 

Freborg, K., & Clark-Chalmer, L. Utilizing Anti-Racist Teaching Strategies to Address Health Inequities: Shifting the Agenda from Cultural Competence to Structural Competence. Poster presented at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Diversity Symposium, [online], November 2022. 

Clark-Chalmer, L., & Freborg, K. Teaching Nurses Competency in Structural Determinants of Health to Address Racism: What Happens when White Nurses Make Room to Hear What BIPOC Nurses Already Know about Health Inequities?, Pre-conference session presented at American Psychiatric Nurses Association Conference, Long Beach, California, October 2022. 

Freborg, K., & Clark-Chalmer, L. Understanding Structural Determinants of Health to Disrupt and Dismantle White Supremacy Culture, Poster presented at California State University Nursing JEDI Summit, East Bay, California, June 2022. 

Freborg, K., & Clark-Chalmer, L. Curricular Innovations in Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in Nursing Practice, Podium session presented at International Association of Human Caring Conference, [online], June 2021. 

Clark, K. & Freborg, K. Radical Hospitality: Revealing Common Ground in Caring Moments, Podium session presented at International Association of Human Caring Conference, Greenville, South Carolina, May 2019.